Princess Merida’s controversial makeover is the latest act to spark an e-petition on Change.org (Picture: Disney)

Robert F Kennedy claimed that ‘one-fifth of the people are against everything all of the time’.

Whereas The Simpsons’ writers were so fond of one declaration they variously had both Kent Brockman and Homer Simpson wonder: ‘When are people going to learn? Democracy doesn’t work.’

And yet Conservative cabinet ministers Iain Duncan Smith and Michael Gove appear to be competing in an (e-)voting contest of their own, even in this apparently apathetic nation.

Work and pensions secretary Duncan Smith has the lead, for now, against his education secretary colleague/rival – that is, in being the subject of the most online petitions: 38 to 22.

The running tally comes courtesy of Change.org, this week celebrating the first anniversary of the US-based firm setting up a specialist British operation.

Whether either minister will feel at all inconvenienced, let alone convinced, by the signature-accruing arguments of their enemies is another argument entirely.

Duncan Smith was the absent target when papers bearing more than 476,000 names arrived at his Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) offices on the morning of April 8, even if attention quickly shifted to Margaret Thatcher’s death.

Petitions gaining 100,000 signatures are not guaranteed debate in parliament, but are passed to and considered by the Commons backbench business committee.

The most popular government petition, signed by 258,270 people, demanded those convicted over the 2011 London riots lose their benefits.

Next most-signed – and still open – has 214,000 people wanting badger culls called off, while other leading campaigns including asking the Health Bill to be dropped and no mass immigration of Romanians and Bulgarians.

Petition starters and promoters have not only authorities to overcome, however, but also any niggling cynicism about the effectiveness – and, indeed, validity – of e-petitions.

Critics claim they can over-rely on merely shallow support, people taking a mere moment to add a name online instead of deeper engagement.

Professor Stephen Coleman, an e-democracy expert at the University of Leeds, has warned online petitions risk being a ‘gimmick’.

Mary Joyce, co-founder of the University of Washington’s Digital Activism Research Project, acknowledged: ‘It is easier to get someone to sign an e-petition than to get someone to attend an offline rally.’

But she added: ‘That’s actually a good thing – e-petitions can get bigger, faster, than an offline protest can.

‘Also, they aren’t limited by geography. I’m unlikely to travel more than two hours to attend a protest, but I can sign an e-petition related to a cause in the UK whether I am from the UK, Canada, or New Zealand.’

There would ‘ideally’ be ‘a mix of offline and online tactics’, she said.

For those pursuing that winning formula, another RFK line might well appeal: ‘Few will have the greatness to bend history itself, but each of us can work to change a small portion of the events.’